Congress Links

July 22, 2010 - by Moshe Bildner

Two major pieces of legislation moved forward yesterday, as the President signed the financial regulation bill H.R. 4173, and the Senate passed an unemployment insurance extension H.R. 4213, by a vote of 59-39. Here’s what’s going on in Congress:

Democrats in the Senate finally broke a Republican filibuster and proceeded to pass H.R. 4213, a fourth unemployment insurance extension; the bill still must be voted on by the House and signed by the President before it becomes law. (Christian Science Monitor)

Testifying to Congress, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke called the economic outlook “unusually uncertain”, and announced that the Fed would keep in place all financial stabilization measures it has taken since the 2008 financial crisis. (CNN)

Congressional Democrats are divided over proposals for new energy legislation; liberal members are pushing to enact a comprehensive energy and climate change bill, while more conservative members, worried that a large energy bill cannot get through congress before the November elections, are urging Congress to consider smaller piecemeal energy reforms. (Politico.com)

Feeling pressure from its Gulf oil spill, BP increased its spending on lobbyists to $1.7 million this quarter. (Bloomberg)

Comments

According to the official, the projects will be part of a five- year, 7.5-billion-dollar aid package approved by U.S. Congress last year, which hopes to temper anti-Americanism in Pakistan by building schools, infrastructure and democratic institutions. pakistan can get this money with no problems. the American people cant get help to feed their kids. WHY!!

As I pack my boxes to move for the 2nd time during this depression, moving because I lost my job! I was actually pulling myself up by my bootstraps with news of the extension this morning putting one foot in front of the other to keep my “chin up” but it is news like this on my coffee break from packing that makes me LIVID!!! Is congress gone mute already?! It seems they have developed a serious case of “not being able to hear again!!!” Thank you for letting me vent. I will finish my coffee and packing… :[

Exactly……Just because we used our 99 weeks we shouldn’t be hungry any more? We Don’t need to Pay Our Bills? Common Congress, What about us 99 weekers? There still are NO jobs in California where the Unemployment Rate is STILL 12.4% Yet Nothing For Us…….And if you are without Dependants you cant get help from the welfare to help with your bills, though I did pay enough to help all the lazy people who did not want a job, but have 5-20 kids on welfare. No I guess they expect me to survive on 132.00 a month in food stamps. well ok, I will go live under the bridge with all the other homeless while OUR tax dollars go to other countries and to the ILLEGALS that everyone says have “civil rights” Thanx

so like when will the bill for unemployment get to the president to sign and when he does sign how long will it take before we see a check (benefits)? hopfully not long because i would probably lose everything else just like my damn car. hopefully they make this quick and we at least see something in te mail next week r so!

@syfy1985 The president will get the bill as soon as the house finishes it debate either late this afternoon or tomorrow, check out www.c-span.org for updates on debate. According to Texas Workforce (Texas Unemployment Office) website once the president signs the bill into law it will be 7 to 10 days for Texas recipients. I suggest you contact your unemployment office directly to find out if what they need from you in order to update your account with them and keep your benefits coming. I would call them now don’t wait as their phones will be very busy once this bill is signed.

@ comments5647 and @ syfy1985.. the House is wrapping up an hour of debate now and then will move to vote on the measure. So we should have a vote within the next hour or so. The President is prepared to sign it immediately there after.

i have a question…i just finished tier 3 which is 73 weeks of unemployment yet texas workforces website says that we do have a tier of EB which is up to an additional 20 weeks….sign Bush signed that into law do we qualify for this tier?

It depends on your state and what their process is. Some states have been very good and have prepared. Some however have not. I live in MA and here it could be 2-4 weeks. I read in todays paper that NY and PA will be next week. North Carolina will be approx 6 weeks. It comes down to computer systems.. What computer system your state runs will determine it.. If they run Cobalt it leads to longer delays. Thats what my state runs.. If anyone from MA reads this and has better info than I have please feel free to email me at dbruneau5973@gmail.com

I agree syfy..it was passed on Tuesday…its now Thursday…why is it taking so long to see it through to the end? When a bill is passed by the Senate…it shouldnt be ‘back-burnered’ while they discuss other bills. Don’t move on until the bill is law. Americans are tired of waiting; our patience has dwindled away.

ok does anyone donny shaw or somebody know how long they are going to stall the passage of this bill again. god help me i am thinking some bad things of our goverment right now. we need to get a new bill to our constitution where the unemployment is considered an emergency like hurricanes or national desasters. where the money is there within days. this is bullshit how they are treating us on both sides. this should not even be a debate. the oil people in the south got unemployment immediatly. im so frustrated right now thenks for letting me vent. god please get this bill passed and new extensions put forward for the 99ers as well. we are so down right now that we cant get any lower. our hands are up please help us today. amen

@seanurse The president will get the bill as soon as the house finishes it debate either late this afternoon or tomorrow, check out www.c-span.org for updates on debate. According to Texas Workforce (Texas Unemployment Office) website once the president signs the bill into law it will be 7 to 10 days for Texas recipients. I suggest you contact your unemployment office directly to find out if what they need from you in order to update your account with them and keep your benefits coming. I would call them now don’t wait as their phones will be very busy once this bill is signed.

i can’t stand politics and how they are fighting to be able to give us the money that we need and deserve to SURVIVE only because the two parties disagree where the money should come from. while these two parties fight about where the money comes from, WE’RE LOOSING EVERYTHING! i can’t support my family as a full time college student serving tables. we need this bill to pass so my mom is able to bring in money to pay our rent. we are not asking you to help us pay our bills for the rest of the our lives. we just need help NOW! i feel for the other Americans that are worse off than us and not even able to put food on the table for their children and i’m sending many prayers for you. God will help us get through these hard times and the future can only get better. tons of love!

@Godisgreat44 you are right GOD will see us through this. The old saying goes God helps those that help them selfs, well lets all help ourself in November by ELECTING someone else obviously this group of leaders DONT CARE !!!!!!!

i completely agree. i’m just now understanding how politics work. but all i know and trust is that God will help those who asks for help and trust him and love him. we all just need bind together and support each other.

I agree with you comments 5647, what about the 99ers. Congress acts as though this group of unemployed Americans are a disease. I myself have received 52 weeks and there isn’t a job even looming in my future. I am in my mid-thirties so I can say I am not experiencing the discrimination the 55+ club are currently dealing with…but there aren’t any jobs that show the slightest bit of interest right now. I have a bachelors degree in business and was making 50k, but now….there isn’t a position in sight. Is this America?

I soon will be joining the 99ers…congress won’t be happy until something drastic happens from the angry mob of people that can no longer feed their children.

We have to vote these people out!!! Ben Nelson wants to know how the bill will be paid for….well why don’t he take a pay cut!!!!! He was quoted as saying unemployment is not an emergency unless we can pay for it. Well be the leader Ben…take a 10% pay cut along with your Republican friends! TRAITOR$$$$$

WOW! This Ed is courageous, tough, honest, smart, and direct. He said everything that needed to be said about what is happening to Americans and our country (minus the 1% top wealthy). WHAT A NEWS CLIP!

I regret missed it during original airing, but thanks to you Melissammm12, and opencongress.org, I not only watched Ed’s Fired Up with incredible facts, I have shared this with all my friends and family.

The problem is not just the politicians, unfortunately, it is our fellow Americans. As I mention last week, don’t ever read the comments on the Huffington Post, because they will make your blood boil. People calling us lazy, entitled, leeches, drug addicts, etc. A lot of people seem to think we’re getting rich while not working. One “compassionate” fellow said, “If you can’t find a job after 99 weeks, you are unemployable and should give up on life”. No one seems to understand there just plain aren’t enough jobs to go around, they think we’re all kickin it on a beach in the Caribbean.

I will never again read a Dickens novel and think, “How could people treat each other like that?”, because we are about to live in Dickensian times yet again. Perhaps Congress should make indentured servitude legal again and be done with it. You know some of them would love to.

it’s difficult for people to understand the unemployment and job issue if they’ve never dealt with poverty themselves. i will never understand why americans think that we are lazy or we’re going after WELFARE so we can sit on our butts and receive money. the east coast is not cheap and we’re lucky to even still have the internet (who keeps popping up messages, threatening to turn it off). how can we be drug addicts? we don’t even have the money to purchase the good drugs, lol just kidding :)

Hahaha! GodisGreat44, but I am an addict! I’m addicted to food in my stomach, electricity in my home, gas in my car, and a roof over my head.

BTW, my own personal theory is that some people are jealous and bitter, BECAUSE they think collecting unemployment is living on easy street. They want to get “paid” not to “work”, and live the high life like they think we do. Little do they know that we barely get “paid” enough to get by.

Oh, and don’t try to tell them that all the unemployed people are getting unemployment insurance because when we worked, we and our jobs paid into it, and we are simply getting our money back. It confuses their tiny little brains, and they just hurl more insults at you.

I ain’t livin no high life. I have enough to keep water , electrity and rent. I can buy some food and allow internet so I can look for a job. I sell things and clean houses for gas money and food for my dogs. “living” on unemployment ain’t " living" it is exsiting.

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